The hi-tech Manchester premises will be at the heart of the nation’s security, using cutting-edge technology and technical ingenuity to identify and disrupt threats to the UK.

Hundreds of staff will eventually be based at the site which is due to open at Heron House, in Manchester City Centre’s Albert Square in 2019.

The Manchester premises extends the network of sites in the UK, which currently sees a headquarters in Cheltenham, and offices in Bude in Cornwall, and Scarborough. In 2017, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of GCHQ, opened its new headquarters in London Victoria.

GCHQ work alongside MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) to keep Britain safe. Our heritage goes back to our beginnings at Bletchley Park, where codebreakers helped wartime intelligence efforts.

The ingenuity and problem-solving of our wartime founders is still abundant today in how our people help to counter online and real-world threats from nation states, criminal groups, terrorists, and individuals.

Throughout this year we've been celebrating our Centenary with a number of special events – building to the 100^th anniversary of our formation on 1^st November 2019. We have already released The GCHQ Puzzle Book II to raise money for the charity Heads Together, seen the Red Arrows fly over our Cheltenham HQ, worked with the London Science Museum on a ground-breaking exhibition, and marked our first home at Watergate House with a commemorative plaque unveiled by Her Majesty the Queen.